The Labyrinth
by DragonflyxParodies
Summary: After a Sheikah kidnaps his sister, Link is given three days to solve his labyrinth and return what he stole from him. Except he hasn't stolen anything. And the longer the Sheikah waits, the more people die. AU Retelling of Jim Henson's The Labyrinth but LoZ-style. NOT a cross-over.
1. Introduction

Hyrule was a land of magic, power. It ran strong as wine through the veins of its people, and saturated the land so thoroughly few could survive leaving its constant presence, into a world where magic was scarce as water in the desert.

Earth and Sky were so entwined that they could not be separated—though Time had sought to do so, ages past. Water and Flame burned in each other's hearts, pooling in volcanoes and in lakes, though Time had woven their tale together tragically. Spirit, Shadow, Light—all spilled across the land, impervious to Time save for the soil over which they held sway.

Hyrule was a place in which all power thrived, side-by-side with magic that elsewhere would destroy it. And such forces were not mortal in their wants and lusts, nor dull in wit and soul.

The Zora were birthed from the depths of Nayru's tears, as cold as they were beautiful. The Gorons were spawned from the heat of Din's passion, protective as they were jovial. The Kokiri were sprung from the fertility of Farore's womb, quicksilver in thought and form. The Hylians were spun from Farore's threads, as dangerous as their lives were fleeting. The Gerudo were built from the fires of Din's heart, unforgiving as they were strong. And the Sheikah were spilt from Nayru's tongue, dead shadows given life.

Hyrule was a country of interwoven parts, most contradictory. It was holy in the most sacred of ways, safe only in the hopes of the Hylians, and paradise for only those whom had been forgotten.

The Sheikah alone had not been intended to walk Hyrule's surface, but such fey things as they could not be kept from such easy prey as Hyrule. They had tricked the Goddess of Wisdom to gain their freedom, and though they had paid for it dearly in the end, the Last believed such sacrifices had been worth it.

He had been woven from Nayru's blood and shadow, aching with all that the Goddess left behind. A boon for his people, though Time was irrelevant to a Goddess such as she. He had been born long after they had passed, hunted and hunting until their final heartbeats echoed no more.

The Shadow Temple had grown cold, hungry in their absence.

His Thief would change that.

 **XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX**

 **Shitty intro is shitty! Just a little exposition/bullcrap that may or may not make sense but will later.**

 **Yeah The Labyrinth was my childhood and I love it dearly. Hoping I can do it justice while also fucking around with it.**

 **So this is basically The Labyrinth, except LoZ, and much darker. I plan on this being a shorter story-shorter chapters, etc. Maybe that'll help it get done faster? I dunno. This story probably won't be high on my priority list, bc How to Live and A Route are, but I do plan on finishing this.**

 **Rated for violence and sex. Also language.**

 **Thank you for reading, and I really hope you enjoy :D !**


	2. Reunion

Rain swept across the road in heavy sheets, pounding its fury out onto cars and cement alike. Cold. Metallic on his tongue. Caught between the rumbling of the clouds, the water-logged sidewalk, and the waves of water thrown up by passing cars, Link had long given up any pretense at keeping himself dry.

He was glad he hadn't been walking home from class when the storm started. His books would have been nothing but piles of mush by now, and textbooks cost far too much for that.

His hair was slick against his skull, and he pushed it out of his eyes for the seventh time, running across the street as soon as it was clear.

Aryll was waiting for him at home, but the Overlook would be beautiful in this weather and the temptation was too much for him.

Castle Town was built on a great cliff overlooking a mess of canyons and rivers and the great Lake Hylia. It was part of the reason they'd stayed there, after Gran had died, rather than move in with Uncle Rusl. It was gorgeous, to emerge out of the looming closeness of the city and find oneself at the edge of a precipice, staring straight down into fog and river and rock.

Link adored Castle Town—not so much the city, but the land. It was beautiful, when the sun splayed its molten colors across the edges of the canyon and fog chilled the air, when shadows swallowed the bottom of the chasms and everything seemed endless, bright.

The Overlook was not a very popular place to hang out—there were rumors that once upon a time it had been the location of a Sheikah stone, and any wishing to trade their lives away would visit there, in the dark of moonless nights when they sky wept as Nayru had. Even now, people refused to build around it—suspicions so strong they outweighed the promise of land.

Besides the railing—strong, but thin and so close to the edge that to lean over meant staring directly into the abyss below—there was only a bench and a large rock covered in mosses of varying shades, and a small, sickly tree that provided meager protection against the elements.

Link let his fingertips brush its rough bark as he slipped past it, a charm of bygone days.

Water spilled down cracks and crevices in the stone, splashing into the darkness below. Lightning cracked, violent and sharp against dark skies.

His phone rang, the normally sharp noise muted, soft. He barely managed to pull it out of his pocket and answer it before the call ended, and when he _did_ pick up he did so with a string of curses.

"…Link?"

"A—Aryll? Oh, fuck— _fuck!_ I'm sorry! I just—I didn't know it was you! Damn— _shit—_ I….I'm gonna shut up now." He was nearly physically shaking, and Link let out a sharp breath as he fell back against the railing, dropping onto the muddy ground as Aryll's tinny peals of laughter echoed around him.

"Who'd you think I was? Were you talkin' to Shad again? Uncle Rusl's gonna kill you when he finds out!"

" _Aryll_!"

"Bring me home some ice cream and I'll forgive you, Brother." She sounded far too chipper considering what had just happened.

"…Are you swearing and not telling me about it?"

"I'm seven."

"That's no excuse."

"Where are you at? You should be home by now! With my ice cream!"

"The Outlook. Wanted to—" Thunder bellowed, deafening him. Link's hands fell, phone splashing into the muddy puddle beside him. When his hearing returned and he'd managed to pick it up, the call had dropped.

Link cursed, rubbing the phone against the clean part of his jeans before dropping it into his pocket, glancing up at the sky one last time. He couldn't leave Aryll alone any longer than he already had—not if she knew he was out, especially not when the call dropped like that. She'd panic.

He let out a sigh, sapphire orbs flickering across the dark, steel sky before turning—

-and blinking, surprised. The air was still, silent. The rain had not stopped, but Link became aware that he could not hear it anymore.

There was someone perched on the rock beside the bench, legs crossed and palms pressed into the moss.

Link could not look away from their eyes.

Red as blood.

"There you are." Crimson lips murmured, curling upwards into a smile. Link found he could not tear his eyes away from the stranger—their presence was hot, heavy on his limbs and suffocating in its intensity. He felt like he was drowning, in those eyes.

"…Who are…you?"

Fingers as fiery as their aura cupped his cheek, slid into his hair. He drew in a deep breath, struggling to cobble enough will together to step back, to move, to do _something—_

Their mouth was searing, hungry on his. His knees buckled, and he sagged against the metal behind him—and they were so intense, so overwhelming, he couldn't feel the chill of the steel through his coat, against his wrists. Hot.

And at the point where they drew away, where their lips separated for a bare instant, at the moment Link tried to draw in a breath of air so cold it burned his lungs, they pressed their mouth against his harder, deepening the kiss. And he let them, unable to breathe as their tongue dragged across his lips, slid into his mouth. Fingers tugged painfully at his hair, but his world had narrowed, cracked and splintered down to the heat of the other and the taste of them, something heady and dark and aged and intense. And as desperate as he was for that, they were as well. They didn't release him until there wasn't a part of his mouth untouched, until he had no strength in his limbs and his vision was little more than tiny starburst pin-pricks of red swimming unsteadily in a sea of black.

Air returned to his lungs in the same moment sound crashed down around him, and he blinked, sliding to the mud as a hand pressed against his mouth.

The rain was cold, hard like the rush of a waterfall as it pinned him to the ground and he gasped, struggling to breath, to make sense of what he was doing there.

His mouth was abnormally hot, and he wondered if he had a fever. He wondered what it was that he was tasting on his tongue, his lips. He wondered when he'd dropped to the earth, when his call with Aryll had ended. He wondered why he felt so chilled, why his teeth were chattering and why his bones ached.

It took him some time before he was strong enough to stand, longer until he could walk.

Aryll was crying when he got home.


End file.
